I have this super cute wool dress. It's over 5 years old and about 3 years ago I washed it and it shrunk! Who washes 100% wool? Ahhh, the agony. Imagine my horror when I took it out of the dryer (oh yeah, I accidentally dried it too) and it was 6 inches shorter!
What to do? What to do? At first I paired it with a longer dress underneath but then I had the best idea! Why not make it longer? So I added faux leather to the hem. I sewed it myself. I purchased the fabric at JoAnn's.
This Miu Miu dress was my inspiration. I love the different textures within the dress.
I only bought a yard of fabric.
1. Measure the width of the dress (the bottom) multiply by two. Add 5 inches to it and cut this amount of fabric. The width was 19 inches *2 = 38 + 3 inches for pleats + 2 extra inches for sewing. So I cut a total of 43 inches of fabric wide and 7 inches long. I wanted to add 6 extra inches to the length of the dress.
2. Hem the fabric. Then add the pleats. I added 2 pleats in the front and 2 in the back. Here's a video on how to make a hem. Here's another for pleats.
3. Sew the trim to the bottom of the dress.
4. Voila!
It took me 45 minutes to complete the project. Very easy! Next time instead of throwing or donating your garments just reinvent them!
What do you think?
I know I always say I'll post pictures of me wearing my DIYs and I always forget but I'm wearing this dress today so I'll share tomorrow.
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| Shrunken dress |
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| Materials |
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| Measuring bottom portion of dress |
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| Cut fabric |
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| Sewing the hem |
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| Hem |
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| Marking the pleats |
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| Sewing the pleats |
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| Pleats |
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| Lining up hem to dress |
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Sewing new portion of the dress onto the dress
Any DIY links welcome! |
What a beautiful piece! I love your style! Have you ever considered becoming a designer?
ReplyDeleteThis is all very new to me and wow gear this article really GW2 gold opened my eyes.Thanks for sharing with us your wisdom.
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